A powerful actor, John Spencer, is dead of a heart attack at a young 58 years old. Spencer won an Emmy in 2002 for his role as McGarry, who was the right-hand man to President Jeb Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen. Ironically, his character had suffered a heart attack that forced him to give up his White House job. This season, McGarry was running for vice president. … Before “The West Wing,” Spencer was best known for playing quirky attorney... Read more
Christianity Today Movies has just published a review of Brokeback Mountain. And that’s just what it is… A REVIEW. It’s not a protest. It’s not someone spewing bile about Hollywood’s “homosexual agenda.” It doesn’t include any slurs like “Sodomites in the Saddle.” It’s a review of a work of art. Written by Lisa Ann Cockrel, this piece is going to do readers a whole lot more good than a rant about “Hollywood’s gay cowboy movie.” Christianity Today Movies’ editors should... Read more
Thursday’s specials: JOIN ME AT THE GLEN WORKSHOP, 2006 From the new Image Update: Announcing Image’s Glen Workshop 2006 “Love and Affliction: Grace, Suffering, and the Artist” July 30 – August 6, 2005 The Glen Workshop is an illuminating conference on the arts and religion, where participants practice and strengthen their craft and vision in community. This weeklong event combines the best elements of a workshop, an arts festival, and a symposium. By exploring this year’s theme, “Love and Affliction:... Read more
Many recent comments have raised this question. Please don’t use this thread as a chance to bash Jackson or Adamson. We’ve got enough of that going elsewhere, and frankly, I’m fairly pleased with both directors and I’m tired of focusing on the negatives. But if both Middle-Earth and Narnia were coming to the big screen AGAIN… who would you pick to direct them? What directors have the right sensibilities to elevate these transcendant works of literature to transcendant works for... Read more
Recently, I was invited to be on a Christian radio talk show, and told that I was to explain to the listening audience why the mainstream press was trying to destroy the Narnia movie. The hosts’ leading question implied that the primary response of the mainstream press to the Narnia movie was negative, and that the chief complaint had to do with special effects. When I asked for the source of their information, all they could offer was TIME Magazine.... Read more
Look who showed up in the comments on the Disappointing Movies thread! Hi Jeffrey…and, uh…hi, Peter. Jeffrey, I’ve been reading your blog pretty regularly — it’s great. Because of you I’ve been listening to “Ohio” by Over the Rhine for the last six weeks. Wim Wenders stayed at my house a few weeks back, and said that it’s one of his current favs, and I bought him a copy of Drunkards Prayer before he went back home to Germany. As... Read more
Since I’m struggling to find ten movies worth recommending in a Top Ten List, I realize now that I’m far more prepared to serve up a different kind of list… THE TOP TEN BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS OF 2005 No, not the ten worst movies… but the ten movies that SHOULD have been GREAT. 1. THE BROTHERS GRIMM. Terry Gilliam’s first bad movie. And yikes, is it awful! If he doesn’t get back on the horse and show us he can still... Read more
Another fine bit of honest analysis on the Narnia movie… Read more
Wow. They should record these shows and sell them. (more…) Read more
Tuesday’s specials: I found most of these links at GreenCine Daily, and I’m glad I did. GUARDIAN GUARDS CHRISTIANITY FROM GUARDIAN JOURNALISTS (AND OTHERS) The Guardian, home of the now-notorious Polly Toynbee who used her Narnia review to bash Christianity, bashes Narnia critics! The Bible is a narrative blueprint for a lot of western culture – if everything referencing it is dodgy then the nativity is dodgy, a lot of Shakespeare is dodgy, some of The Archers is dodgy, everything... Read more
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